- BAGHDAD -- A series of deadly
suicide bomb attacks, explosions and drive-by shootings has claimed at
least 40 Iraqi lives in the four days since Saddam Hussein was captured,
raising the insurgency to a new intensity.
-
- A volley of incidents yesterday saw assailants kill a
policemen in the northern city of Mosul, while US forces killed three attackers
as they tried to mount a drive-by shooting there. In Baghdad meanwhile,
at least 10 people died yesterday when a fuel tanker exploded at a busy
traffic junction in Baghdad after colliding with a minibus.
-
- Iraqi police and bystanders said it was the latest in
a spate of suicide attacks, but US officers said it was a simple traffic
accident. Accident or no, the grisly spectacle generated fresh anxiety
in the wake of an upsurge in violence that has coincided with Saddam's
capture near his home town of Tikrit on Saturday.
-
- Although there are still a significant number of attacks
on US troops in Iraq every day, the rate of operations has declined. Instead,
attacks have dramatically increased against Iraqis who work with the Americans,
particularly policemen.
-
- US commanders said they expected a rise in indiscriminate
attacks immediately after Saddam's capture, but hoped this would begin
to fade away.
-
- One member of Iraq's governing council said yesterday
that Saddam was still being held in the Baghdad area, despite reports that
he may have been moved to Qatar, where the US central command is based.
Other important detainees from the ousted regime are being held at a large
US military compound at Baghdad airport. "He's still in greater Baghdad,"
said Mouwafak al-Rubaie. "Maybe he'll stay there until he stands trial.
God willing, he will be tried in Iraq in public by an Iraqi court."
-
- Washington has said that the CIA was leading the interrogation
of the Iraqi leader, but it is unclear how much information he has volunteered.
-
- Yesterday's tanker blast was particularly horrific. Parts
of the vehicle's yellow cab were scattered for several hundred metres in
all directions.
-
- Some witnesses reported seeing shots fired at the vehicle
before it collided with the minibus, sending up a massive fireball, which
left at least 20 others injured.
-
- Iraqi police suggested it could have been en route for
a suicide mission at a frequently-targeted police station in the city.
Witnesses were convinced it was terrorism. "This is absolute terrorism,"
said Wajdi al-Samarrai, the owner of a mechanic's shop. "This can
only have been done by someone who hates Arabs and hates Islam." But
the US military later said no explosives had been found and insisted it
was an accident.
-
- "Our ordnance experts found no evidence of explosives,"
said Captain Jason Beck. "It was not consistent with a car bomb."
-
- By a wall on a pavement opposite the wreckage, a group
of young men had gathered up scraps of flesh and buried them in holes in
the ground, covered with rocks.
-
- On the wall they had written small notices in black paint.
"Mixed body parts," read one. "The driver of a pick-up,"
read another. "God is the greatest. These are the martyrs of a Bush
operation," said a third, reflecting the view of some in the crowd
that the US had somehow been responsible.
-
- "Why are the Iraqi police and the American soldiers
not caring about the remains of the dead?" said Ali Jassim, 20, who
dug one of the makeshift graves with his bare hands. "We are Muslims
and these body parts must be buried." Like many in the crowd, he could
not accept that the bombers had been Iraqis. "This is happening because
of the open borders around our country, people are coming in to do this."
-
- In a car bomb blast on Sunday, 19 people, including 17
policemen, died in an attack on the police station in Khaldiya, 50 miles
west of Baghdad. Two more car bombs at police stations in the capital followed
on Monday, claiming another eight lives.
-
- * The US last night reduced its diplomatic presence in
Saudi Arabia by authorising the departure of non-essential US diplomats
and the families of all US officials "due to ongoing security concerns".
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1109311,00.html
|
